lax culture from an insider
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Anonymous
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You also don't have a clue. 460 kids at a recruiting showcase is a Gong Show. NXT carpet bombs 5,000 applications out from NXT summer tournament rosters. Two sessions for 2017, 2018 & 2019 teams each with 30 teams. That is 60 teams per grade times about 25 kids per team times three school grade years equals -- by no small coincidence -- about 4,500. Throw in 500 more for club kids whose clubs didn't go to the NXT summer events and there is your 5,000.
Maybe everyone who got an application applied, maybe not. Getting the list to 450 isn't too hard to do when you can just call a few dozen club owners and say "you get this many slots for 2017, 2018 and for 2019...let us know"...the club guys call lacrosse dads like you and make you feel special saying they will push hard for your son to get a spot. And boy does that make Cabell, Ryan/Buller and Trig look like heroes when they excitedly let you know your son will be invited. Or didn't it happen that way? The NXT fall showcase is an excellent chance to go to Downingtown and get yourself a few beers at the Victory brewery after the "me ball" showcase you dropped a lot of money for. Just make sure your son knows to not pass the ball, otherwise his highlight reel play will never happen. I have no affiliation with NXT either...thank god. |
Anonymous
So your son didn't get in? Sorry. |
Anonymous
So without showcases, where does your son go to get recruited and seen? |
Anonymous
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Wow, you really are a lacrosse dad.
No, my son didn't apply or get in. He's in college now. Don't do yourself any favors and go spend thousands on these things over the next year and completely blow off singing you son up for some box this winter (where he actually acquire some skill and IQ for the game. Use 4 minutes of your time and watch one of those Junior A links just one time. Then...when you're up in PA at this NXT think keep that flashback in your mind when you're watching kids run around with the ball on their sticks for 25 seconds at a time before launching a 15 yard shot from a bad angle on the wings. The sad thing is your kid is likely to get recruited to go sit on the bench for 4 years at some college Cabell, Ryan/Buller or Trig pushed because your son never learned how to play lacrosse. |
Anonymous
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If your son plays on a club team and a high school team, then does timely prospect events at the colleges he is interested in...THAT IS SUFFICIENT. If you have disposable income to spend and are fortunate to be able to afford instruction, dial up guys who can teach your sons the game the right way. Get 4,5,6 or 8 kids from your son's club team and dial up some excellent instructors for small group training. Coach Pugh, Steven Brooks...there's two.
If your son is 13 or 14 years old, don't kid yourselves that your sons need a lot of reps and a lot of skill instruction. If you'd rather spend $700 on a showcase tuition and another $300 on hotels and travel as many times as it takes, but won't invest in development, it won't end well. My son's college team has plenty of IAC and other nifty pedigree kids sitting on the bench or they've just quit. I am sure they wish somebody told them some of this earlier. |
Anonymous
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Looks like the NLF Futures Showcase invites went out. Same dates as 3D Blue Chip.
Anyone have any experiences to share positive/negative about either showcase? |
Anonymous
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NLF is Crabs + 5 other club teams that started their own elite / exclusive group for tournaments and showcases. This imitates the model Adrenaline and 3D have been blowing up for a few years. 3D is a monster, and has grown so big so fast that some old guard guys like the Crabs owner got together to take it in and break it up. The NLF members all hate Jamie Munro and think he's a cheesy salesman trying to build out a string of Walmart franchises for lacrosse -- which is true. 3D Blue Chip is a thing over 2,000 kids per class go to in order to qualify for Jake Reed. Then Jamie Munro sucks out a lot of the Jake Reed spots for 3D players. 3D did the same thing to an extent last summer when they sent 3D Rising guy to go cover the Nike Ride in exchange for a bunch of slots for Jamie to give to his west region 3D kids.
The NLF I would guess is relatively better because it is smaller and less of a zoo. I am not a huge fan of showcases or the NLF guys who are more of the same money grab club crowd, but if a choice between these two NLF is a better option. |
Anonymous
| My seventh grader got an invite?!? Any harm in saying no until he is at least a rising freshman? |
Anonymous
| PP here: what is the tuition for this NLF event for 7th and 8th graders? |
Anonymous
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That was quite lazy of me. So, you 7th and 8th grade dads have a decision to make on the NLF 2 day event starting 1pm on a Saturday and done Monday before noon. $600 tuition + & $130 a night for accommodations at the IMG site.
No harm in asking what I think, and I think that this is a waste of money and is super sleazy. Sure 20+ D1 programs will send assistant coaches down to work in this camp for a little dough and a lot of good PR. There'd be plenty of harm in asking Cabell, McLernan, Buller, etc what they think of you question doing this for a 7th grade or 8th grade kid. You see, your son got invited meaning he's one of the 120 best players out of six club programs...no, sorry I mean the whole country! And, you miss this you also miss a shot at the even more exclusive three day NLF showcase in Massachusetts next summer! And, there's more...this is a chance to pre-audition in front of 20+ D1 coaches from top programs who will be attending. And...this isn't going to be an easy thing for you to take, but if you sit this out you are also out of the feeder system which gets you preference to be invited back next year as an 8th grader and also for the really, really important one for 9th graders. Did you notice how many 2018s are committed and how many recruiting classes are already full??? If you don't act now, you are really, really going to damage your son's opportunity to live his dreams and play D1 lacrosse. You'll never recover or forgive yourself and your son will always resent you for it. Will that make you happy? No! And remember, the registration is only open until midnight tomorrow, no exceptions. After that we have no choice but to open registration to the wait list. And the wait list has 894,385 2021s on it! Look, $600 with another $1,000 in travel and hotels (assuming your 7th grader isn't going alone with Uber app on his phone and some cash) is a lot of money. It would buy a lot of EXCELLENT instruction with Scott Pugh or Steven Brooks which will contribute to making your son a better player the right way. I am not a schill for Pugh or Brooks but believe in instruction. I liked Ryan McClernan a lot better back when he was just a junk bond salesman before the credit crash who ran a club on the side. Now he is the guy leading this sleaze. |
Anonymous
| ^^ Amen. |
Anonymous
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You lacrosse knucklehead club owners and coaches...a new day is coming...when everyone realizes your are just dumb jock carnival barkers and thieves....with the growth of the sport, your power will dissipate and ultimately disappear. Enjoy your ride while it last...soon we will all return to
Our senses and realize that throwing thousands of dollars at club teams and clinics and showcases is like flushing money down the toilet..... |
Anonymous
| These dads with "insight" info are really weird. Do you really have nothing better to do than post on a forum for moms? |
Anonymous
| Well said |
Anonymous
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Color me guilty. I am a dad posting on this site, and frankly I hope it contributes in some small way to getting this sport back to what it was...my oldest had so much fun playing the game and being teammates and friends to the kids he came up with. Nobody gave a crap about recruiting until junior year of high school, and at that point nobody resented the kids who were plainly top players who deserved college looks and a shot.
I have a 6th grader now, and for Christ sake, everyone is supposed to be thine enemy and rival for "looks" or "spots" or an All-Star roster at some stupid summer club tournament squeezed into a cow field in Bel Aire or Poolesville? Jesus, I am not real sure if it was 2013 or 2014 or...when that happened, but it just happened. This stopped being a sport and is a brothel for compulsive status addicts. Parents of seventh graders really are worried about a lot of recruiting related things and there is a business built around servicing that anxiety. Steve Jobs once wrote that people didn't know what they wanted until he gave it to them. Lacrosse feels a bit like that now...what you are being sold is what you are supposed to be consuming. I don't know what it will do or how far it will go to push reforms, but I won't go silent on this showcase and club scumbag two step way this sport has gone. The clubs locally here need to be sending a different message: learn the game, supplement summer with box leagues and other opportunities to sling the ball around and catch it from different release points and angles. Wall ball is a waste of time and no kid wants to do that an hour a day anyways. Spend fifty bucks on a couple of mini-soccer goals and take your sons and his buddies to an empty field or tennis court and have them play pick-up 2 on 2 or 3 on 3. Kids can whoop it up flipping it around, flipping it behind the back and between their legs as a goof. And while having fun by accident they will become better lacrosse players. It's all about being able to sling it and catch it from every release point and angle. That's all it really is...the ball moves faster than any kid. |